Her birth certificate is here which states that her mother was born in Montana and her father in England

The NY Times obituary for Martha Raye gives her mother's name as Peggy Hooper and says her parents were Irish immigrants, which is contradicted by the 1920 Census hereWhich shows Mabelle H Reed on line 51,age 32 born in Montana,married at age 16, with parents born in Michigan. (this calculates her DOB to 1898)

Margaret (Martha) and her brother Buddy are on lines 79 and 78 respectively.Peter Reed is on line 50 of the preceding page, with a notation that he, is age 34, born in MT, with first marriage at age 20. (DOB calculates to 1896.)

This residence,648 N.Dearborn street in Chicago, is apparently a theatrical boardinghouse or hotel, judging from the number of individuals in the profession living thereStill looking for Maybelle's mother's name.

Actually found Martha Raye's birth certificate online:http://www.colonelmaggie.com/images/BirthCertificate.jpgThis again said her mother was a Hooper and that her Mom's name was Maybell. Father Peter F Reed.

I found references to the siblings of Martha as Bud and Melodye (also her daughters' name).

I found a Melodye Reed listed as a grandchild of Jacob Kleinhans in Cascade Co MT in 1930. In the 1910 Cascade Co MT census, Jacob had a daughter named Mabelle living with him and his second wife. (coincidence or the cause of my rat hole?) I couldn't find a Hooper I liked, so I followed the Kleinhans. An older child was born in Michigan, so I found Jacob's first wife was Mary. Both Mary and Jacob were born in Germany, and Mary supposedly arrived in this country in 1876. Which leaves me to the final tunnel in my rat hole - in trying to find a maiden name for this non-Hooper Kleinhans family wife, the Mary born in Germany closest to the age of this Mary in Michigan, was Mary Staals in the 1880 Portage, Houghton Co MI census.

I hope someone found the Hoopers - wow, that was a long, wrong way trip, but I decided to post it anyway to show my Friday night entertainment!!Deb

It's possible that somehow Hazel was elided to Maybelle, but I can't find a confirmation of that, but I think it's worthy of note that Maybelle did appear in the census as Maybelle H. Reed, although this may simply stand for Hooper.

Unless I'm reading the years wrong, the children are much too young to be Mabell, however Mabell appears as Mabell H in the 1920 Chicago Census (which could be Hazel). If Samuel died, and Theresa married Jacob that would explain why the Mabell appears as a daughter to Jacob Kleinhans in 1910.

Second theory was that Mabell was a sister to Samuel Hooper. I think this is Samuel in Michigan:

The Samuel Hooper listed in the 1870 census was a miner, and I found an entry on the Houghton USGENWEB site of a Samuel Hooper dying in a mining accident 23 Nov 1871, leaving 2 children (Portage Lake Mining Gazette), so that leaves little Mary and Samuel on their own with mom Mary, so Samuel (the son) could have married before Theresa, but I'm throwing in the towel. Mabell has eluded me.Hope someone can take any of this info and solve the mystery.Deb

So does that make Hazel the same person as Maybell? The dates don't seem to work. The Mabell Reed on the Chicago census would have been born around 1888; the Mabell living with Theresa and Jacob Kleinhans would have been born around 1892, and Hazel is August 1896. Of course, we KNOW how accurate census records can be.... [not]Deb